Number, Timing, and Duration of Marriages and Divorces: 2009

Number, Timing, and Duration of Marriages and Divorces: 2009

Household Economic Studies

INTRODUCTION

Marriage and divorce are central to the study of living arrangements and family composition. Social and economic events as well as changes in cultural attitudes shape marital behavior, which then affect family life and other interactions. The study of the evolving patterns of marriage and divorce requires basic measures of the incidence of these events.

The Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) is one of few data sources that can provide a comprehensive look at both current and historical marital patterns in the United States. SIPP data contain a detailed marital history for men and women aged 15 and over, as well as extensive information about the characteristics of adults, their households, and the people with whom they live. In addition, information about both husbands and wives is available for people who are currently married.1

1 Since 2008, the American Community Survey (ACS) has been asking adults whether they had married, divorced, separated, or been widowed in the year before the survey, as well as the number of times married and the year the latest marriage began. Estimates of indicators such as the characteristics of people who had a recent marital event, the percentage of men and women who have ever divorced, and the percentage of recent marriages in which both the bride and groom were marrying for the first time are now available in both the SIPP and the ACS. See the following paper for more information: Elliott, Diana B, Tavia Simmons, and Jamie M. Lewis, Evaluation of the Marital Events Items on the ACS, 2010, available at . While ACS adds valuable information about recent U.S. marital patterns, especially state-level data, SIPP still contains the most detailed, comprehensive data available at the national level. A forthcoming report will showcase the new ACS marital events data.

The marital history data have been collected in SIPP since 1986 and reports were published starting with the 1996 data. Before that time, marital history reports used Current Population Survey data, which included a marital history from 1975 through 1995. The SIPP marital history topical module is a nationally representative survey which is fielded approximately every 5 years, with the most recent data collection prior to this survey occurring in 2004.2 This report updates some of the tables shown in the previous reports and tables with data collected in the second interview of the SIPP 2008 Panel, collected in January through April of 2009, and adds several tables covering other topics.3

In 2009, marital history data were collected from men and women 15 years and over in approximately 39,000 households. In the sample, 55,497 evermarried adults were asked questions about the number of times they had been married and the month and year of marital events (including marriage, separation, divorce, and widowhood) for their first, second, and most recent marriages. Since fewer than 1 percent of adults have been married four or more

2 The tables for 2004 are available on the Census Bureau Web site at .

The most recent report in this series was written using SIPP 2001 Panel data and is available at .

The earlier 1996 report is also available at .

3 The population represented in this report (the population universe) is the civilian noninstitutionalized adult (15 years and over) population living in the United States. The items asked in the marital history topical module are available at .

Issued May 2011

P70-125

Current Population Reports

By Rose M. Kreider and Renee Ellis

U.S. Department of Commerce

Economics and Statistics Administration U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

times, few events are missed by using this approach.

The first section of this report examines changes in marital patterns during the period that SIPP data were collected, 1986 to 2009. Additionally, this section describes changes in the age at marriage, divorce, and remarriage across different cohorts of men and women born since 1940 to 1944. The second section provides current indicators of the percentage of the population who have married more than once, who have ever divorced, or who experienced other marital events. This section also answers questions about how long first marriages last, the median age at which people marry or divorce, and what percentage of currently married couples involve spouses who are both in their first marriage. The third section profiles the characteristics of people who experienced a marital event in the year prior to the survey.

HISTORICAL MARITAL PATTERNS

Changes From 1986 to 2009

One of the most noticeable changes in marital patterns has been the increase in the age at first marriage.4 This is reflected in an increasing proportion of younger adults who are never married. Table 1 shows the percentage of women never married, by 5-year age groups, from 25 to 29 to 55 and over. While the proportion of all women who are never married at age 25 to 29 has increased substantially from 1986 to 2009 (27 percent to 47 percent), it did not differ statistically for women

4 See "Estimated Median Age at First Marriage, by Sex: 1890 to the Present," Table MS-2 at .

Marital status. The marital status classification refers to the status at the time of interview. "Married, spouse present" applies to husband and wife if both were living in the same household, even though one may be temporarily absent, for example, on business, vacation, a visit, or in a hospital. "Married, spouse absent" relates to people who are living apart for reasons other than marital problems, for example, spouses living apart because one or the other was employed elsewhere, on duty with the Armed Forces, or incarcerated. "Separated" refers to couples who are living apart due to marital problems. "Divorced" indicates people who report that they have received a legal divorce decree and have not remarried. "Widowed" indicates that a person's last marriage ended in the death of their spouse. The term "never married" applies to those who have never been legally married, as well as to those whose marriages were annulled.

Marital history. A marital history was collected from each person in the household aged 15 and over. There were 55,497 people in the sample from approximately 39,000 households. Respondents answered questions about when they had been married, separated, divorced, and widowed, if they had experienced these events. Dates for the beginning and end of up to three marriages were collected: first marriage, second marriage, and most recent marriage, regardless of whether this was the third or later marriage. Since very few people marry more than three times, few events are missed by using this approach to data collection. Although questions were asked only of people aged 15 and over, some people reported marital events as occurring before age 15.

Marital event. Refers to a change in marital status--getting married, getting divorced, or being widowed.

Birth or marriage cohort. A cohort signifies a group of people born or married in a specified time period--for example, people born from 1945 through 1949.

Current age. Age at reference month, which is the month preceding the interview.

Median. The median is the value which divides a distribution into two equal parts; half of the cases fall below this value and half exceed it.

aged 55 and over (5 percent to 6 percent).5

5 The estimates in this report are based on responses from a sample of the population. As with all surveys, estimates may vary from the actual values because of sampling variation and other factors. All comparisons made in this report have undergone statistical testing and are significant at the 90 percent confidence level unless otherwise noted.

This pattern varied by race and ethnicity, with a higher percentage of Black women than non-Hispanic White women never married in each age group in 2009 (Table 1,

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U.S. Census Bureau

Table 1. Percent Never Married for Women by Age, Race, and Hispanic Origin,1 for Selected Years: 1986 to 2009

Year

TOTAL 1986. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1996. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2001. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2004. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2009. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

25 to 29 years

26.9 35.3 37.3 41.3 46.8

30 to 34 years

14.0 18.7 21.7 22.3 26.7

35 to 39 years

10.0 14.1 15.6 16.2 17.3

40 to 44 years

5.3 9.8 12.1 13.0 14.1

45 to 49 years

4.9 7.3 8.9 10.8 12.0

50 to 54 years

3.5 5.5 7.3 8.5 10.1

55 and over

4.8 4.1 4.0 5.1 5.8

WHITE

1986. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

23.8

11.2

8.2

4.3

4.1

3.0

4.9

1996. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30.8

14.8

11.2

7.7

6.0

4.6

3.8

2001. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

33.1

16.6

12.7

9.1

6.9

6.3

3.4

2004. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

36.7

18.2

12.5

10.4

8.3

7.3

4.5

2009. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

41.6

22.6

13.8

11.2

9.7

8.2

5.0

WHITE, NON-HISPANIC

1986. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

24.0

11.3

8.2

3.8

4.2

2.6

4.8

1996. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

31.1

14.3

10.9

7.7

5.9

4.6

3.6

2001. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

34.1

17.1

12.3

9.0

7.1

5.9

3.1

2004. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

38.3

18.6

12.3

9.9

8.4

7.4

4.4

2009. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

43.3

22.0

13.5

10.3

9.4

7.8

4.7

BLACK 1986. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1996. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2001. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2004. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2009. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

44.3

34.8

23.9

13.3

12.7

6.3

3.5

57.7

39.4

33.6

25.0

15.9

11.7

6.6

59.4

49.5

34.0

31.3

23.9

16.3

9.4

66.3

47.0

39.0

30.3

28.5

18.0

10.9

70.5

53.6

39.2

33.1

28.5

24.5

13.0

ASIAN

1986. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

29.3

16.4

3.9

?

?

5.6

9.7

1996. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

41.5

18.4

4.6

3.1

7.8

7.9

5.7

2001. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

38.6

17.4

7.9

10.3

5.6

2.8

5.0

2004. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

39.0

25.7

19.7

16.2

8.4

9.8

4.4

2009. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

51.6

11.8

10.2

5.9

7.5

5.8

4.8

HISPANIC

1986. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

23.8

14.8

8.7

12.8

1.5

8.1

8.9

1996. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30.5

19.5

13.3

9.0

8.9

7.5

7.2

2001. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

28.0

15.9

15.1

11.8

4.8

11.7

8.0

2004. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

32.0

16.7

14.7

16.3

8.6

6.6

6.7

2009. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

36.8

27.2

15.1

15.2

12.9

11.8

8.9

? Represents or rounds to zero.

1 Race and Hispanic origin were collected differently in earlier years compared with 2004 and 2009. In 2004 and later, respondents could mark all race groups they chose, while in earlier years they had to choose just one group. In 1986, 1996, and 2001, Asian includes Pacific Islanders, while in 2004 and 2009 it does not. In 2004 and 2009, Black, White, and Asian include those who marked only the category indicated.

Note: A small percentage of all women in 1986 were missing on marital status (.07 percent of all women).

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), 1986, 1996, 2001, 2004, and 2008 Panels, Wave 2 Topical Module. For information on sampling and nonsampling error, see .

Figures 1a and 1b).6 For example,

71 percent of Black women aged

6 Because Hispanics may be any race, data in this report for Hispanics overlap with data for the White, Black, Asian, and all remaining races and combinations populations. Based on the population 15 years and over in SIPP 2008 Wave 2, 16 percent of the White population, 6 percent of the Black population, 2 percent of the Asian population, and 16 percent of all remaining races and combinations were of Hispanic origin.

25 to 29 had never married, compared with 43 percent of nonHispanic White women in 2009. Corresponding percentages for never-married women aged 55 and over in 2009 were 5 percent for non-Hispanic White women and 13 percent for Black women. Similar to 2009, a higher proportion of

Black women had never married than non-Hispanic White women at all age groups in 1986 except the proportion never married for those aged 55 and over.

While the percentage of Black women who had never married was considerably higher than for

U.S. Census Bureau

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Figure 1a. Percentage of Women Never Married by Age, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 1986

Percent 80

70

White, Non-Hispanic

Black

Asian

60

Hispanic

50

40

30

20

10

0 25?29

30?34

35?39

40?44 Age group

45?49

50?54

55 and over

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), 2008 Panel, Wave 2 Topical Module. For information on sampling and nonsampling error, see .

non-Hispanic White women in many age groups, the magnitude of the increase between 1986 and 2009 in the percentage never married was higher for Black women than nonHispanic White women in just two age groups--50 to 54 years and 55 and over. While the percentage of non-Hispanic White women aged 50 to 54 who had never married in 2009 was 3 times what it was in 1986, the increase was 4 times for Black women of the same age group. For women aged 55 and over, there was no increase for non-Hispanic White women, but the percentage for Black women

was 3.7 times as high in 2009 as in 1986. The difference in the magnitude of the increase suggests that a higher percentage of Black women than non-Hispanic White women may never marry.

Another change in marital patterns during 1996 through 2009 was the leveling of the divorce rate, after it had decreased from a high around 1980. Percentages of ever-married women shown in Table 2 who had ever divorced, shown grouped by age, reflect this leveling. The table also shows that while percentages for ever divorced

generally increased between 1996 and 2009 for older age groups (50 to 59, 60 to 69, and 70 and over), the percentage ever divorced decreased for younger groups of women over the same time period. This is because women in the older age groups in 2009 were the ones who were married during the time when divorce rates were increasing to their height at the end of the 1970s.

As marriage rates have decreased and cohabitation has become more common, marriage has become more selective of adults who are

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U.S. Census Bureau

Figure 1b. Percentage of Women Never Married by Age, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 2009

Percent 80

70

White, Non-Hispanic

Black

Asian

60

Hispanic

50

40

30

20

10

0 25?29

30?34

35?39

40?44 Age group

45?49

50?54

55 and over

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), 2008 Panel, Wave 2 Topical Module. For information on sampling and nonsampling error, see .

better off socioeconomically and have more education, and divorce rates have leveled.7 These changes are reflected here in decreasing proportions ever divorced for ever-married women at younger ages. While 19 percent of evermarried women aged 25 to 29 had divorced in 1996, 14 percent had divorced in 2009--a decrease of about 30 percent. The percentage ever divorced decreased about 20 percent for women aged 30 to 34, from 26 percent to 21 percent

7 Cherlin, Andrew, The MarriageGo-Round: The State of Marriage and the Family in America Today, Random House, New York, 2009.

ever divorced over the same time period. Despite these decreases, the prevalence of divorce in the United States remains higher than in most European countries.8

Age at First Marriage

Since the 1950s, the median age at first marriage has risen for both men and women, increasing from 23 for men and 20 for women in 1950, to 28 for men and 26 for

8 See Table 25 in the Demographic Yearbook published by the United Nations, available at .

women in 2009.9 Table 3 shows the percentages of men and women who were ever married, ever divorced, or married two or more times by selected ages. Data are shown for 5-year birth cohorts, from 1940 to 1944 through 1980 to 1984. Reflecting the rise in the median age at first marriage, the percentages of men and women born in 1980 to 1984 who were married by age 20 (7 percent and 16 percent, respectively) were

9 Estimates of the median age at first marriage can be found on the Census Bureau Web site. See "Families and Living Arrangements," Table MS-2 at .

U.S. Census Bureau

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